I hope you all enjoyed the year-end holidays and are looking forward to a great new year!

OK, by now we all realize (hopefully) that we should be structuring our season training plans to
help us peak for our most important races of the year. You want to be 100% fit and ready at that
time, not here in January, right?

Along those lines, you must also realize that as you build up your fitness toward your big goal of
this year, your training will also be building up and improving. Just as we cannot race at 100%
year round, neither can we train at 100% fitness year round. So many athletes seem to "forget"
this pertinent factor.

If you are not ready to perform at 100%, then why do you expect your training to be faster than
ever before? "I just ran a 10k and my time was so slow compared to what I did last July." Well...
of course. It should be. It's January! It's cold, you aren't (shouldn't be) doing any race-specific
intervals, your body is naturally experiencing a period of hibernation and you're getting back into
your routine after a period of down time after your last season came to an end. So, with all of
these factors working against your ability to perform at 100%, why do you expect a PR at a race
in January?

Sure, you can compare the same race year-to-year to possibly - possibly - gauge your fitness.
But even then your performance is affected by weather conditions. One year's Super Bowl
Shuffle 5k might be greeted with temps in the 50s while the next year it could be 20 and snowing.
You shouldn't expect a better or even similar result in less favorable conditions, but how many of
us refuse to cut ourselves that slack? Not too many of us.

Maybe this will help you get through the winter and spring. Think of your training during this
period as a calculated, gradual progression that holds you over until it is time to turn the screws andget down to business. While it is true that you gain the majority of your fitness during the initial 3-5 months after a prolonged break from training (4+ weeks), you can still view your improvement
curve as one that rises gradually now and then spikes in the weeks approaching your most
important race(s). That spike is resultant from the addition of race-specific training that sharpens
your fitness, smoothes the rough edges and brings everything in your program together to a nice,
solid peak performance.

Now, that being said, I don't mean that you should simply dawdle along until June. You can't
afford to shoot your plan full of holes. But your resolve can be more relaxed and you can cut
yourself some slack at this point. If you are too focused now, then you run the risk of hitting the
brick wall called Emotional Burnout just about the time you should be getting excited about what
you're trying to accomplish. Bad news when this happens.

Training is the means to the end. If you're training faster than ever before right now, be careful.
You may not be leaving yourself anywhere to go but down (meaning slower) when it really comes
time to kick things into a higher gear.

So, cut yourself some slack! As long as your training is improving during these upcoming months
and your Plan is on track, then relax and enjoy.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate 

Let’s face it, in this day-and-age, there is an unending amount of information out there. Athletes in all sports and all ability levels can find more than enough from which to put together some semblance of training plan. And, to a certain degree, this can lead to some successes. But, there are also risks associated with the self-coached approach. Largely, the lack of objectivity when creating the “Master Plan” and, more importantly, when both real-time and long-term tweaks are required.

Many athletes will entertain the idea of working with a coach at some point in their career. Some will want guidance from the beginning of their athletic endeavors; others will feel they have taken themselves as far as they can without a more experienced mentor pointing the way. No matter when you think about working with a coach, you’ll likely consider the idea of coaching yourself first.

As you consider whether to go the self-coached route or to team up with a coach, here are some questions to consider.

Can I coach myself?
It all comes down to evaluating what you want and need as an athlete, and then seeing how well your resources and skills stack up. Do you have the time available to read up on all the information available on the web, a large amount of which is complete crap (being honest here) and dissect it all? Can you take much of which is just “snapshot” information and comprehend how to apply it within the context of a strategic approach to season-long training and racing?


Motivation
When you’re reporting back to someone about a workout, coaches establish a sense of accountability, a powerful source of motivation for many athletes. We all like to hear constructive feedback, but it’s hard to get that kind of feedback when the conversation is between you and yourself.

Time Management
One of the biggest ways a coach can help you is to determine what a realistic training week looks like, and then help you make the best use of your time available. Self-coached athletes tend to create the “perfect training plan” and then try to shoehorn their lives around the plan, rather than building their training plan into the ebb-and-flow of their daily lives. If you’re unable to put the emotional component on the shelf while planning your training, you can find yourself behind the 8 ball early into your training plan. Then what?

Stress Balance
There are 3 buckets of stress – physical, emotional and mental. The body doesn’t discern the type of stress we apply; it only knows that it needs to process “stress”. And, if our life is such that all 3 buckets of stress are overflowing, are you equipped to first identify this is occurring, and second know how to adjust things on the fly to compensate for the overload and for how long? 

Trusting Your Instincts
If you’ve been training for a few years—with or without a coach—you’re likely able to understand what’s going on with your body and training. And, to a certain degree, you might even know how to make adjustments. Or do you? What level of confidence do you have when asking yourself “What should I do about today’s scheduled workout? Should I complete it or do I need to adjust it?” A coach’s objectivity can be priceless here.

While any one of these factors could lead you to hire a coach, it’s important to remember that most of us have the basics of the sport covered. The acts of swimming, biking and running are basic and athletes have a basic understanding of how to complete each type of sport. However, there’s always more to learn, and constant time and attention that needs to be applied to your “Master Plan”. And, if you find that you’re consistently wondering whether or not you could get to “the next level” by working with a coach, then it’s probably time to take the plunge.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate